Castello, Félix
Madrid (Spain), 1595 - Madrid (Spain), 1651He was born to a family of Italian artists. His father, Fabricio, was one of the painters who came to Spain to work at El Escorial and later married a Spanish woman. His grandfather, Giovanni Battista Castello, el Bergamasco, had also worked for Philip II and died in Madrid in 1569. Besides training with his family, Félix was a close disciple of Vicente Carducho, and he maintained ties to that master throughout his life. In fact, he carried out the appraisal of his teacher’s artistic possessions after his death. His dependence on Carducho was so great that according to Jusepe Martínez his works were mistaken for those of his teacher. His efforts to develop ties to the court were largely unsuccessful—he was denied the post of painter to the King in 1617 and again in 1627—but he nonetheless followed the family tradition, working for the Spanish Crown on numerous occasions. His most ambitious known works were for the Buen Retiro Palace: The Recovery of the Isle of Saint Christopher, for the Hall of Realms, and a depiction of the Visigoth king, Theodoric, for the series of Gothic kings (both at the Museo del Prado). He made several portraits of monarchs for the Alcázar’s Hall of Comedies, as well as other decorative works for that same palace’s chapel. He also visited various Royal residencies in order to decorate the royal hunting lodge known as la Torre de la Parada. His religious paintings include works for the Tavera Hospital in Toledo and Getafe. As mentioned above, his models and human types are drawn entirely from Vicente Carducho, with correct drawing and considerable compositional clarity enlivened with certain touches of color.